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By listening to strongest gravitational waves are produced by catastrophic events such as colliding black holes, coalescing neutron stars or white dwarf stars and the remnants of gravitational radiation created by the birth of the Universe itself, scientists can reconstruct the cataclysmic events that created them and gain information about the celestial bodies that generated those waves. Einstein’ s equations described a universe in which space and time were dynamic. Space-time could stretch and expand, tear and collapse into black holes — objects so dense that not even light could escape them. The equations predicted, somewhat to his displeasure, that the universe was expanding from what we now call the Big Bang, and it also predicted that the motions of massive objects like black holes or other dense remnants of dead stars would ripple space-time with gravitational waves.
Right now, our telescopes can only see objects that emit electromagnetic radiation. But some objects, like colliding black holes, don ' t emit any electromagnetic radiation. Instead, they emit gravity. And that ' s why, with gravitational wave astronomy, hard-to-detect objects in the universe— like black holes and neutron stars — may soon come into clearer focus. Michaelson’ s Interferometer Experiment for detection of luminiferous Aether was the foundation of the LIGO Project. LIGO boasts two specialized detectors in Washington and Louisiana, designed to pick up these ripples. LIGO is the world ' s largest gravitational wave observatory and a cutting-edge physics experiment. What LIGO is looking for is evidence that gravitational waves are distorting spacetime enough that one of the arms becomes temporarily longer than the other.
Prospects 1) Seeing farther back in time due to the special ability of LIGO and VIRGO of listening to the gravitational waves 2) Improving on Einstein’ s theory of general relativity as it is inconsistent with Quantum Mechanics and determining where it fails as it consistent with black holes. 3) Discovering new neutron stars 4) Learning how common it is for black holes to orbit one another 5) Finding the source of dark matter and trace its origin. 6) Finding new, weird celestial objects such as cosmic strings ( weird wrinkles in spacetime containing a massive amount of energy)
References
· www. ligo. caltech. edu · www. spaceplace. nasa. gov · www. nobelprize. org · www. vox. com · www. newyorker. com · theatlantic. com · theverge. com